The present invention relates to a mass spectrometer and a method of mass spectrometry. The preferred embodiment relates to a method of performing MS3 or MS/MS/MS.
Mass isolation was performed in a linear ion trap (“LIT”) by Beaugrand et al. and was presented at ASMS 1988 (ASMS 1988 abstracts page 811).
Further work was published by Watson et al. in 1989 (“A technique for mass selective ion rejection in a quadrupole reaction chamber”, Int. J. Mass Spec. Ion Proc. 93, 225-235 (1989)). In this article an arrangement was disclosed comprising a penta-quad instrument comprising an El/Cl ion source, a mass selective quadrupole Q1, a first collision cell C1 comprising an RF-only quadrupole, a second mass selective quadrupole Q2, a second collision cell C2 comprising two RF-only quadrupoles, a third mass selective quadrupole Q3 and an electron multiplier detector. The first collision cell C1 was maintained at a pressure of 1×10−3 after the first resolving quadrupole Q1 was used to trap and then selectively eject ions by the application of a dipolar excitation. The isolated ions thus remaining were then released and mass analysed in one of two further resolving quadrupoles. It was suggested that the same auxiliary RF excitation could be used to increase the kinetic energy of the ions so as to induce fragmentation via collision induced dissociation (“CID”).
A disclosure at ASMS in 1989 (“How to use a standard quadrupole filter as a two dimensional ion-trap”, C Beaugrand et al., Proceedings of ASMS 1989, p. 466) reported using a single quadrupole operating as a linear ion trap wherein mass selection of parent/daughter ions and CID fragmentation was achieved in the linear ion trap by firstly filling the ion trap. Precursor ions were then isolated. In a following step CID fragmentation was performed via excitation and daughter ions were then isolated before being detected.
A further instance of mass isolation and fragmentation in a linear ion trap prior to mass analysis was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,278. U.S. Pat. No. 517,278 discloses isolation and fragmentation in a linear ion trap prior to mass analysis in a 3D ion trap.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,259 discloses mass isolation and fragmentation in a linear ion trap prior to mass analysis in a Time of Flight mass analyser. Use of this apparatus was reported at ASMS 1998 (ASMS 1998 abstracts, p. 39).
Campbell et al. described a similar experimental setup (ASMS 1998 abstracts, p. 40) which allowed MSn in a linear ion trap prior to analysis by a Time of Flight mass analysers. Further results using this instrument were published by Campbell et al. (“A New Linear Ion Trap Time-of-flight System with Tandem Mass Spectrometry Capabilities”, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 12, 1463-1474 (1998)).
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,833,544 a mass spectrometer is disclosed wherein precursor isolation was performed in a quadrupole mass filter (QMF) followed by MSn analysis in a linear ion trap, followed by final mass analysis in a third device. With this geometry the first MS step to isolate the precursor is performed in the first quadrupole Q1, the linear ion trap steps are performed in the second quadrupole Q2 (i.e. the gas cell) and the mass analyser could be one of several devices.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,049,580 and 7,227,137 disclose fragmentation in linear ion traps.
It is often necessary to determine the identity or internal structure of a compound and a common method used for this purpose is MS/MS (or MS2) analysis whereby a target compound having a specific mass to charge ratio is first isolated and then fragmented. The resultant fragment ions are then mass analysed. In certain situations such an approach is either not sufficiently specific or else further structural information is required. If further structural information is required then a MS/MS/MS (or MS3) analysis may be performed whereby a target compound is isolated and fragmented. One of the resultant first generation fragment ions is then isolated and is further fragmented to form a plurality of second generation fragment ions. Successive repeats of isolation and fragmentation steps may be strung together in instruments such as ion traps and the general technique is commonly known as MSn.
A major problem with known instruments is that they suffer from a problem known as low mass cut-off (“LMCO”) wherein the RF voltage which is applied to the ion trap in order to contain or radially confine the isolated precursor or parent ions within the ion trap is not also suitable for retaining low mass or low mass to charge ratio fragment ions which are subsequently created when the precursor or parent ions are fragmented within the ion trap. This low mass cut-off effectively limits the mass range or mass to charge ratio range of fragment ion mass spectra that can be produced.
In addition, 3D ion traps are not regarded as being particularly good mass analysers and there have been several attempts to produce a hybrid geometry instrument wherein the isolation and fragmentation steps are performed in a linear trap before being passed directly to a Time of Flight (“TOF”) mass analyser for the final mass analysis step. Attempts at coupling linear traps to quadrupoles for the final mass analysis step have been limited to monitoring single masses as scanning quadrupole spectra are unable to be acquired due to the pulsed nature of the release of ions from the linear ion trap.
It is desired to provide an improved mass spectrometer and method of mass spectrometry.